This invention pertains to ticking fabrics used to make hospital pillows and similar articles. The fabric is a nonwoven and is foam coated to produce a fluid-resistant, durable wipeable pillow covering or ticking having bacteriostatic properties.
Most ticking is a durable, closely woven fabric used for covering box springs, mattresses and pillows and may be woven in a plain, satin or twill weave, usually with strong warp yarns and soft filling yarns; see Man-Made Fiber and Textile Dictionary (1986) Celanese Corporation. Woven ticking may be used for apparel construction such as shirts, blouses and skirts.
The foam-coated nonwoven fabrics of this invention have foam coating specifically formulated to impart properties adapted to hospital or institutional use and reuse as a durable pillow cover or ticking.
There are a number of different quality levels of pillow ticking fabrics used to produce hospital pillows. In the hospital environment, these pillows may be exposed to body fluids and cleaning solutions, thus necessitating the need for a pillow fabric to be repellent to these fluids. With the increasing concern over disease transmission between patients, the single use, or disposable pillow, has become increasingly popular. These pillows are commonly produced using a cheap light-weight nonwoven fabric, having no bacteriostatic or repellency properties. Although the initial cost of the disposable pillow is less than the durable types, the cost per use is greater since the pillow is used for only one patient.
An object of this invention is to provide wipeable, light-weight, nonwoven pillow ticking that displays good barrier properties, bacteriostatic action, and is durable enough to be used several times before discarding, thereby producing advantageous cost per use performance.
Another object is to provide a pillow ticking that is breathable, repellent to water, oil and alcohol and similar liquids to which pillow ticking may be exposed in a hospital environment, and exhibiting soil release properties when wiped or cleaned.